The new year comes with all the anticipation and hope one can muster. The pandemic year has left many business leaders in a state of “what next?”
While there was widespread business and economic disruption among other kinds of disruptions in our daily lives last year, 2020 was actually the year of doing business online. If research and the numbers are to be believed, last year saw a growth that could only be compared to the accumulated growth of the past 10 years before it! The questions now are how did it happen and what can one do with it?
To answer the first question, the disruption in one’s daily life led to one’s increased dependency on all things online. Buying, selling, talking to a doctor and checking daily updates of the rate of infection in various parts of the globe along with entertainment – everything boiled down to one’s laptop, smart phone or TV remote. This is where the era of true online presence began for many companies and businesses that had so far resisted going digital in a complete way.
This is also the year when buyers turned online for all their needs. Not only did this lead to a massive increase in existing segments, but it also led to the establishment of new segments that had not ventured online before that. And like all good markets, this trend, too, demanded that businesses get matched to these segments and audiences.
Going Online in 2021: Tools and Trends
This is why businesses are looking to make a greater impression than ever before online. Those that had no online presence are looking for website developers and Amazon vendor accounts, while those who were already online with a mere website began to amp up their game with tools like product bundles, CRM, marketing automation software and many others in order to tap into the new plethora of opportunities.
The main thing to remember here is that great potential often brings great competition. Merely having a website or a social media page is not enough to make an impression to even become visible to your core audience.
How can a small or mid-sized business find the right data and churn out relevant campaigns across all deliverables and platforms like email and landing pages? This is where a tool like marketing automation comes into the picture!
What Marketing Automation Achieves
Before we understand why each and every business today needs marketing automation, we need to understand what it really is. There are a number of ways to define marketing automation:
- A workflow
- A system
- A process
- A careful combination of emails, landing pages, lead generation, lead scoring and various other things that help produce conversions.
As you can see, marketing automation software makes it possible to structure, design and produce the deliverables for campaigns that will reach your audience on all the varied platforms where he or she might be.
Why You Need Marketing Automation
Stand Out and Stand Tall: In today’s world of enhanced competition, you do not merely need to stand out, you also need to stand tall. This means that you have done something unique in your industry using a creative approach to define and promise a solution to the same problems that your competitors are addressing. You have to build brand credibility so there is an affinity toward your brand.
Stay Visible: You have to be constantly visible with content and campaigns that are relevant on specific platforms and for that specific audience.
Personalization: If you’re wary that marketing automation creates a bot-like experience with no human touch, think again. Most marketing automation software ensures that you have a plethora of creative templates and messaging formats to choose from so you are able to create a customized appeal that will attract your ideal customers.
Manoj Kumar is a passionate blogger sharing business tips on behalf of EngageBay. He writes primarily on SEO, email marketing, CRM, marketing automation and covers the entire gamut of marketing. Connect with @ManojN_Official on Twitter.
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